Part 71：Am I not pure?
On Friday, Zoe attended the opening event of a newly built mall. She agreed to participate in such an in-person event purely because the payment was high enough.
Since she also had an appointment with the producer and director of The Eighth Heartbeat right after, Zoe had to rush to the agreed location as soon as the event ended. Lan arrived from the company and met Zoe at the restaurant entrance.
The online drama hadn't subsided yet. Every day, people continued to flood Zoe's Weibo with hateful comments, accusing her of being manipulative and calling her derogatory names. The primary narrative behind the insults was that she had "seduced the purest boy in the world" — Song.
Zoe could only roll her eyes as she resisted the urge to retort. Instead, she took a screenshot and sent it to Song with a message:
"What kind of spell did you cast on them to make them think you're the purest boy in the world? I feel like throwing up when I read that description."
Song replied, "Am I not pure?"
Zoe: "Ha."
Zheng, sitting next to her, noticed the cold smirk on Zoe's face and couldn't help but ask, "Sister Zoe, what happened this time? Are you upset again?"
"Just amazed at how shameless someone can be." Although Zoe was venting, a hint of amusement flashed in her eyes.
Zheng was even more confused, unsure whether Zoe was angry or amused.
"Sister Zoe, here are the profiles of The Eighth Heartbeat's producer and director. Lan asked me to print them for you." Zheng handed over a stack of papers.
Lan always thought of everything thoroughly. Zoe took the papers and skimmed through them.
Her phone vibrated again. It was another message from Song:
"Ha what? Pure boys like me are rare."
Zoe wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
"I'm done talking to you. I need to review some documents."
Song: "What documents could possibly be more interesting than me, a superstar?"
Zoe: "If you stop being narcissistic for one second, will you die?"
Song: "Isn't it just the truth?"
Zoe: "I should rename you to 'Peacock.'"
She then found a GIF of a male peacock fanning its feathers around a female peacock and sent it to Song: "Your kind."
To her surprise, Song replied: "Are you hinting at something by sending this GIF?"
Zoe: "?"
Song: "Hinting that you want me to confess my feelings to you?"
Zoe: "Did water get into your brain?"
Song: "Tsk tsk, so you do admire my beauty after all."
Zoe: "Song, do you believe I already have a giant saber ready to chop you down?"
Song: "Violence doesn't solve problems."
Refusing to get dragged further into his nonsense, Zoe stopped replying, afraid he'd drive her crazy.
But Song's messages kept coming:
"You still haven't told me. What documents are you reviewing?"
Zoe: "How does that concern you?"
Song: "As your senior in the industry, I should help you evaluate them, shouldn't I?"
Zoe: "Get lost, get lost, get lost."
She immediately set his messages to "Do Not Disturb" and turned off her phone.
Once she pushed Song out of her mind, Zoe began seriously reviewing the profiles of The Eighth Heartbeat's producer and director.
The producer was Liu Pinran, whom Zoe had already met. The director, named Lu Yuan, appeared to have considerable experience, but his past works didn't leave much of an impression. His best-rated project had a score of no more than six out of ten.
Reading this, Zoe's lips twitched.
As expected, she shouldn't have held any hope for this project.
The restaurant was a private venue in a secluded location, booked by Liu Pinran. Zoe met Lan at the entrance.
"Why do they want to meet us? What's the agenda?" Zoe asked.
"Probably to discuss the script and your role," Lan replied. "It's common for the main cast to have these preliminary meetings."
"Really? Judging from their past works, I thought they didn't care about quality at all," Zoe quipped sarcastically.
"Don't be so sharp when we meet them later," Lan warned. "They're Yuehai Network's inner circle. If you want to continue working on Yuehai's projects, don't offend them."
"Oh, please. If Yuehai Network considers them their 'inner circle,' they might as well sell them off early. The company will collapse within three years at this rate," Zoe said, her sarcasm intensifying.
Lan sighed helplessly. "Don't take this lightly. Lu Yuan is the younger brother of Yuehai's head of production, Lu Hongjie."
"Ah, so he's just another nepotism case," Zoe sneered. "No wonder they insisted I take this role. Turns out, they're appeasing someone the company doesn't want to offend."
"Think about it this way: if you can build a good relationship with Lu Yuan and connect with his brother, Lu Hongjie, even if your popularity fades, you'll still have projects to work on. Why do you think so many rookies with no fame land lead roles one after another?"
Zoe frowned, her irritation evident.
"Zoe, welcome!" Liu Pinran stood up and greeted her warmly.
"Hello, Mr. Liu," Zoe replied, her earlier irritation instantly replaced with a radiant smile. "Nice to see you again."
"Let me introduce you. This is Lu Yuan, the director of The Eighth Heartbeat," Liu Pinran said, gesturing to a man standing beside him.
Lu Yuan had slightly long hair tied back, wore black-rimmed glasses, a casual jacket, and jeans. He looked completely unremarkable.
"Miss Zoe," Lu Yuan extended his hand for a handshake.
"Hello, Director Lu, I'm Zoe," she replied with a polite smile as they shook hands.
After some polite exchanges, they all sat down.
In this setting, Liu Pinran tactfully avoided mentioning past unpleasantness but brought up Zoe's recent rumors instead.
"Miss Zoe, are you really dating Song?" Liu Pinran asked.
Zoe chuckled lightly and shook her head. "The rumors have already been clarified. Song and I are just ordinary friends."
"But I imagine your relationship must be better than that of ordinary friends. Song has never been this close to any other actress," Liu Pinran teased with a smile.
"Really?" Zoe smiled faintly. "Actually, I'm not that close to him either. We've only met two or three times. It's just bad luck that the paparazzi caught those moments."
After some lighthearted banter, Lu Yuan suddenly asked, "Miss Zoe, I heard from Mr. Liu that you weren't very interested in acting in my project?"
Zoe froze, completely unprepared for Lu Yuan's blunt question.
Liu Pinran looked equally surprised, not expecting Lu Yuan to bring it up.
He patted Lu Yuan on the shoulder and said, "Old Lu, why are you bringing that up?"
Unfazed, Lu Yuan looked at Zoe. "I just wanted to ask, is it true you don't want to take part?"
Instinctively, Zoe turned to glance at Lan, who seemed just as caught off guard.
Lan quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "Director Lu, Zoe didn't read the script initially, so she had some hesitations when accepting the role. But that's normal. Any actor would be cautious without seeing the script. But Zoe is definitely committed to this project; otherwise, why would she have accepted it?"
"Oh, really? I thought Miss Zoe might look down on an unknown director like me," Lu Yuan remarked with a wry smile.